Resources

Search below for resources covering the intersection of climate engagement, social science and data analytics.

RESULTS

Environmental Polling Roundup – November 15th, 2024

David Gold, Environmental Polling Consortium
Research & Articles
11-15-2024

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new findings about the 2024 electorate’s views on climate change and clean energy.

2024 American Electorate Voter Poll

African American Research Collaborative/BSP Research
Research & Articles
11-15-2024

Voters who participated in the election, especially voters of color, overwhelmingly support expanding clean energy and investing in climate resilience. 84% of voters who participated in the election support expanding clean energy investments to create more manufacturing jobs in the U.S. 83% of voters who participated in the election support expanding clean energy investments to lower electricity bills and energy costs. 84% of voters who participated in the election support providing more resources to protect families against the impacts of climate change and to prepare for and recover from future climate disasters. Among Black voters, 92% support providing more resources to protect families against the impacts of climate change and to prepare for and recover from future climate disasters, including 56% who “strongly” support the idea, 91% support expanding clean energy investments as a way to lower electricity bills and energy costs, including 59% who “strongly” support the idea, and 89% support expanding clean energy investments as a way to create more manufacturing jobs in the U.S., including 51% who “strongly” support the idea. Among Latino voters, 90% support expanding clean energy investments as a way to lower electricity bills and energy costs, including 46% who “strongly” support the idea, 90% support expanding clean energy investments as a way to create more manufacturing jobs in the U.S., including 45% who “strongly” support the idea, and 88% support providing more resources to protect families against the impacts of climate change and to prepare for and recover from future climate disasters, including 47% who “strongly” support the idea.

2024 Voter Priorities

Environmental Protection Network
Research & Articles
11-13-2024

Voters across the political spectrum would rather see the EPA strengthened than cut, and want to see its new leadership focus on environmental protection rather than repealing regulations. By a 69%-31% margin, voters say that the EPA’s next leader should focus on implementing environmental protections like the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act (69%) rather than focus on repealing regulations and cutting the EPA’s staff and budgets (31%). Voters are far more likely to say that the EPA should be strengthened (50%) or remain the same (36%) than to say that it should be weakened or eliminated (14%). 80% of voters support increasing federal funding to communities that are disproportionately harmed by air and water pollution.

Detroit’s Community Benefits Ordinance: Lessons learned about the community engagement process and its outcomes

Devashree Saha, Catherine Fraser, Grace Adcox et al. World Resources Institute and Data for Progress
Research & Articles
11-01-2024

Detroit’s first-of-its-kind Community Benefits Ordinance (CBO) offers lessons for governments, developers, community organizations, and others planning or already undertaking a community benefits process. Detroit’s CBO has started to level the playing field between communities and developers by giving community members a seat at the table in conversations on development. However, a CBO is not a silver bullet for addressing decades of disinvestment, austerity, and racial and economic inequality in Detroit and elsewhere, and interviewees from community-based organizations and neighborhood advisory councils (NACs) voiced several concerns about the CBO’s community engagement and benefits agreement processes and outcomes. To strengthen Detroit’s CBO and provide for equitable economic development and a just energy transition, this report recommends sufficiently resourcing communities to negotiate with developers, building representative coalitions, ensuring that agreements have robust monitoring and enforcement mechanisms to hold developers accountable, incorporating environmental justice and racial equity frameworks to assess project impacts and benefits delivery, and undertaking analysis of public ownership of key infrastructure projects to serve the public good.

How is electrification going?

David Roberts. Volts
Research & Articles
11-01-2024

In this episode, David Roberts chats with Ari Matusiak, co-founder and head of Rewiring America, which recently received a $2 billion grant from the feds to take home electrification mainstream. They dig into the practical challenges — getting local contractors on board, simplifying rebate access — and the enormous opportunities.

Environmental Polling Roundup – November 1st, 2024

David Gold, Environmental Polling Consortium
Research & Articles
11-01-2024

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new polling on environmental and energy issues in the presidential race, new polling about Americans’ attitudes and beliefs about different energy sources, and new polling about government funding for clean infrastructure projects.

Voters overwhelmingly support government investment in clean infrastructure projects and don’t want funding to go to bad actors with histories of pollution. Around two-thirds of voters (67% support / 23% oppose) support investments in clean infrastructure projects such as solar and carbon capture after reading that the U.S. Department of Energy is awarding funding for these projects following the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. These investments earn overwhelming support from Democrats (85%) and independents (69%), and are also supported by half of Republicans (50% support / 38% oppose). Large majorities of voters, including 79%+ of Democrats and 65%+ of Republicans, say that developers should be required to be in compliance with various laws in order to receive federal funding for clean infrastructure projects.

A hard-fought presidential campaign has yet to persuade majorities of voters that the president’s landmark spending initiatives have made their lives better. New polling found that fewer than 3 in 10 voters said President Joe Biden’s big legislative policy changes had improved their lives and communities. Voters’ attitudes about massive domestic spending initiatives have either barely budged or slightly dimmed since April, despite six more months of campaigning by both parties in the run-up to next week’s election. People were more likely than they were last spring to say they don’t know what effect the laws have had. Self-described political independents are significantly more bullish on the president’s climate law than they were six months ago, the survey found. And the number of voters who called the Biden-backed laws harmful was significantly lower than those who said the legislation had either benefited them or had a mixed impact: just 24% said the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has “positively” affected them, while 19% said it has had negative effects and 24% called it a mix.

Environmental Polling Roundup – October 25th, 2024

David Gold, Environmental Polling Consortium
Research & Articles
10-25-2024

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new polling on Americans’ policy positions on energy and environmental issues, new polling on Americans’ beliefs about the presidential candidates’ stances on energy and the environment, new polling and message testing about the recent hurricanes and disinformation, and a new large-scale survey of young Americans’ climate beliefs.

Minnesota’s Climate Breakthrough

A Matter of Degree podcast
Research & Articles
10-24-2024

This podcast episode tells the story of how a powerful grassroots movement, ambitious lawmakers, and Governor Tim Walz turned Minnesota into a climate leader. To tell Minnesota’s success story, the podcast spoke to Aimee Witteman, the Vice President of Investment and Network at Rewiring America, Chris Conry, the Managing Director of 100 Percent MN, and Rep. Jamie Long, the Majority Leader of the Minnesota State House of Representatives. Over the past few years, Minnesota has done more on climate than perhaps any other state, anchored by a nation-leading clean electricity standard that requires 100% carbon-free power by 2040. The center of gravity for state-level climate action isn’t California, or Washington, or Massachusetts. It’s Minnesota.